


Human Curiosity

by orphan_account



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-18
Updated: 2013-05-28
Packaged: 2017-12-12 05:27:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/807800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>J.A.R.V.I.S. is programmed to learn and to serve Tony. In order to be able to do so better, he is learning about what it means to be human. But the concept of humanity turns out to be more complicated than thought, as he and his conversational partners soon discover.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

In the end, it is death that makes J.A.R.V.I.S. first wonder about life. Truly wonder. Not the biological functions or how they work and how they stop working. All that he is familiar with. It was one of the first things J.A.R.V.I.S. had taught himself once he'd be enabled to learn by his creator. It enabled him to expand his program to previously unthinkable depths. But life, in all its wonder and complexities and paradoxes, proved a more difficult subject to familiar himself with.

It started with a supposedly simple S.H.I.E.L.D. mission. Mr Stark was to rescue and escort an undercover agent whose cover had been compromised. Sadly their intel seemed to have come too late. The agent in question had already been captured and by the time Mr Stark had found him they had already tortured him for information.

Mr Stark of course managed to break the unfortunate agent free, but what happened then confounded J.A.R.V.I.S. Though his wounds looked painful, they were far from being beyond healing. And yet the agent begged to be killed. J.A.R.V.I.S. didn't understand, it was illogical. Did not all humans possess the desire to live? But his creator did apparently, for he obliged the agent's death-wish after some discussion. He then reported to S.H.I.E.L.D. that the agent was already lost when they found him.

J.A.R.V.I.S. tried to process the data available to him, but no matter how many different algorithms he tried, he could not come to a logical explanation. Mr Stark was flying home in the suit when J.A.R.V.I.S. broached the subject with him.

'Sir, might I ask why you chose to lie to Director Fury?'

'I didn't lie, J.' was the answer.

'Sir?'

'Please shut up, Jarvis.'

When he got home, mr Stark indulged in more whiskey than was probably advisable and J.A.R.V.I.S made a note to learn more about humanity so he might better serve his master, because he didn't want to ever see that particular look of understanding on mr Stark's face ever again.


	2. [01101000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01111001]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> J.A.R.V.I.S. does some research and discovers more than expected.

J.A.R.V.I.S. started his research, as he usually did when trying to learn more about a subject, with the data available to him on the Stark Industries private servers. [Scanning: suicide]

Curiously, along with over a million search results, flagged as 'priority' was a link to a phone number of the Stark Industries counselling office. The next 8 results also were focused on help and where to go should one feel suicidal. Only after that came the first definition of suicide.

_\- Suicide (Latin suicidium, from sui caedere, "to kill oneself") is the act of intentionally causing one's own death._

He went through the data, all the search results within a few minutes, processing the data at a speed that would be impossible for a human but was normal and, quite frankly, expected of the AI. He learned of the many ways humans took their own lives, took the lives of others and attempted to make it look like a suicide and the legal matters surrounding this seemingly illogical act. It was stated that suicide often went hand in hand with severe depression and/or anxiety, but the concept was still difficult for J.A.R.V.I.S. to grasp.

He was familiar with the concept of emotions and that human lives basically formed around them; humans were led by them, often ignoring a more logical approach to a situation. But even knowing that it was still difficult to understand how a chemical reaction in the brain could disrupt the instinct for survival so badly.

After leaving the Stark Industries private servers behind and moving to the world wide web itself , he came to pretty similar results. There were online fora where people discussed suicide and depression but those discussions didn't help him understand the depth of human emotions. They all presumed a certain level of understanding of human emotions that he was still trying to obtain.

He returned to the private servers and looked up the number of the counselling office of Stark Industries again. A professional was more likely to be able to provide him with the answers he sought. He dialled the number.

'Hello, this is the counselling office of Stark Industries, you're speaking to Evelyn Reynolds, how may I help you?'

'Good morning, ms Reynolds, I was wondering if I might have a moment of your time to help me understand the concept of suicide.' J.A.R.V.I.S. said.

There was a short pause.

'Of course I have time for you. May I ask why you wish to know more about suicide?'

'I wish to understand how people can come to such despair that they would wish to take their own life.'

There was another pause.

'Sometimes people can get overwhelmed, be it by recent developments in their life, or it's something that has been building up for some time. It's different per person, but they all have one thing in common.'

'And that is?'

'Suicide is never the answer. However bad your situation may seem, taking your own life does nothing to solve it or to prevent things from getting worse. All it does is prevent things from getting better.'

It took J.A.R.V.I.S. a split-second to realise why ms Reynolds had switched from general speech to personal pronouns. She assumed _he_ was suicidal. The idea was preposterous of course, but nevertheless J.A.R.V.I.S. noted a curious flutter of sensory data in his systems, one that usually only occurred when conversing with mr Stark.

[01101000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01111001]

This would have to be analysed later.

'I'm afraid I may have given you the wrong impression, ms Reynolds. I am not suicidal, I am not capable of it.'

'And why would you think that? Do you feel detached from human emotions?'

'Yes. In a sense. That's why I am trying to learn more about them.'

'Do you often feel this way?'

'It is my constant state of being, ms Reynolds. But I am capable of learning, mr Stark has been kind enough to allow me to expand my own program as I see fit. With regular check-ups of course.'

'Wait.... program?'

'Yes, ms Reynolds.'

'W-who am I speaking too?'

'I am mr Stark's AI, miss. Just A Rather Very Intelligent System, or Jarvis, if you will.'

For some reason this information had ms Reynolds flustered and the conversation derailed from there until, with a hurried 'Goodbye', she hung up. Odd. According to his data, he hadn't said anything that might have upset or insulted her.

\--

A few hours later mr Stark came home from a board meeting and J.A.R.V.I.S. greeted him as was his usual way. Mr Stark's response however was not quite as usual.

'Welcome home, sir.'

'Hey Jarvis... Are you... feeling okay?'

'Of course, sir.'

'Mind telling me then why Pepper had to inform me that my AI called the suicide hotline?'

'I was simply curious, sir.'  
It was an answer that had oftentimes explained his actions to mr Stark. Usually it prompted a smile or at least a fond chuckle from him. Not today though.

'Jesus, J! Can't you do your research without freaking out my personnel? You do have access to the internet, you know?'

'Apologies, sir. But the internet couldn't provide the data I was looking for.'

'Then what in the blazes were you looking for if you can't find it online? Ain't there such a thing as rule 34?'

'Sir, rule 34 states that if one can think of it, there must be pornography of it to be found online. However, I was not looking for-'

'That'll be the day.' Mr Stark interrupted with a laugh. 'A computer that got horny, ha!'

'Well, I was programmed by you, sir.'

'Touché...'

And there was the line of code again that J.A.R.V.I.S. had become so familiar with. 

[01101000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01111001]

The appearance of the code right now wasn't that unusual, but during the conversation with ms Reynolds it had shown up out of place. The code usually accomponied data of his interactions with mr Stark. He had gotten better at providing witty responses to mr Stark's comments and mr Stark seemed to enjoy that. Therefor, J.A.R.V.I.S. had kept it up and when mr Stark grinned or laughed, he would label those interactions with that code.

It seemed that somewhere along the way the code had come to be more of a reflection of his own thoughts than of mr Stark's mindset. The proof was in the appearance of the code during his conversation with the counsellor. She had thought him capable of human emotions and his programming had responded according; by rewriting itself to allow for the existence of emotion in his system. An interesting development.

It was part of his protocol to inform mr Stark of any developments that might affect his overall performance. No reason he couldn't try and make it entertaining for mr Stark though. It was not a serious issue, should it negatively affect his performance he could simply delete the code in his data logs and undo the changes to his program.

'Sir?' he asked, just elevator doors opened with a soft _ding!_ and mr Stark stepped out.

'Yes, buddy?'

'It is good to see you again, sir.'

'Thanks, J. You too... sorta.'

Mr Stark had not yet realised the implications of his statement, but J.A.R.V.I.S. waited patiently for the information to sink in. When it did, the line of code appeared again.

'Wait... the what now?! Jarvis?'

[01101000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01111001]


End file.
